Philip Babcock

BABCOCK, Philip Scott, PhD Philip Babcock passed over into heaven peacefully on November 7, 2012, in his Goleta home, after facing cancer with courage and dignity. He was born August 25, 1959, in Los Angeles, to Lyle and Helen Babcock. He grew up in Manhattan Beach and Bakersfield. He graduated from Highland High School in 1977 and Princeton University in 1981. Philip founded his own software engineering company and a partnership company, Dyno-Tech, providing service to the oil industry. He pursued both acting and writing. He completed a PhD in Economics at UC San Diego in 2005. He became a professor at UC Riverside in 2005, then UC Santa Barbara in 2006. He was still working at UCSB at the time of his death.
Professor Babcock was considered a tough but dedicated teacher. He produced newsworthy research which has been cited and debated in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, and he was quoted by the Wall Street Journal only a few days before his passing. In 2011, he published a novel, "Eyes of God." Philip is survived by his wife, Kathy (married 20 years); daughter, Breanna; sister, Susan (Michael) Gearin; in-laws Richard and Dori Nakagawa, brother-in-law Ronald (Cindy) Nakagawa; niece and nephews, Ali, Connor, and Sean Gearin; nieces Kristi, Adrianne, Tori, and Elizabeth Nakagawa and their mother Sharon Nakagawa. A memorial service will be held at Goleta Valley Church, 595 N. Fairview Ave., in Goleta, on Saturday, December 1st, at 3 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Coastline Christian Academy.